Friday, September 3, 2010

6 years on, Portugal child sex trial reaches end

Bernardo Teixeira, one of the alleged victims of child sex abuse at a state-run children's home in Lisbon called Casa Pia, pauses during an interview with the Associated Press Thursday, Sept. 2 2010 in Lisbon. A verdict is due Friday in the major child sex abuse trial in Portugal that has lasted almost six years, produced chilling testimony from dozens of alleged victims and shaken public trust in the country's institutions. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) LISBON, Portugal -- A child sex abuse trial that has lasted nearly six years is drawing to a close after producing chilling testimony from dozens of alleged victims and shaking public trust in Portugal's institutions.

Six men, including a national television celebrity and a retired ambassador, and one woman are accused of sexually abusing minors and adolescents, raping children and running a pedophile ring at a state-run children's home in Lisbon called Casa Pia. The court is to rule on more than 800 alleged crimes in a verdict due on Friday.

The trial, believed to be Portugal's longest, has included testimony from more than 800 witnesses and experts, including 32 alleged victims who have given gruesome accounts of rape by adults in dark cellars and nighttime car journeys to secluded houses used by the alleged sex ring during the 1990s.

The Casa Pia is a 230-year-old institution caring for roughly 4,500 needy children, most of them living in dormitories at its premises around the capital.

Bernardo Teixeira, one of the alleged victims who says he was repeatedly abused while living at Casa Pia between the ages of 13 and 15, says he never reported it for fear of not being believed and being punished by the institution.

When a whistleblower broke the scandal in 2002, and police opened an investigation that lasted more than a year, he came forward. Then, girding himself against fear and shame, he testified at the trial.

"It's traumatic going over it all again," Teixeira, now 22, said in an interview. "But in the end it was like getting a weight off my chest."

He published a book last year about his ordeal called "Why Me?" It recounts gut-wrenching episodes, including the first time he was raped in the back of a van.

"In despair I grabbed my own arm and bit down on it, hard. Maybe that way I could relieve the pain gripping my entire body," he wrote.

Almost all those who allege abuse - now aged between 16 and 22 - identified their alleged abusers by pointing to them across the courtroom.

Miguel Matias, the lead attorney on the four-person prosecution team, says the pressure of being at the center of the most notorious case in recent Portuguese history took its toll on the accusers, driving some to attempt suicide. One jumped off a second-floor balcony; one stabbed himself in the stomach; another took rat poison.

Even so, Matias says most of them will be in court to hear the verdict.

"They are eager to see whether (coming forward) was worthwhile," he told the AP.

A 53-year-old former driver at the Casa Pia, Carlos Silvino - who claims he was also abused as a child at the home - has confessed to more than 600 crimes and has incriminated the other defendants.

They include Carlos Cruz, a popular television presenter with a three-decade career in show business, and Jorge Ritto, a decorated career diplomat and former UNESCO ambassador. Three other men are also charged with child sex abuse, including a doctor and a former Casa Pia ombudsman. A 68-year-old woman, Gertrudes Nunes, is charged with providing her house for meetings between the children and the alleged pedophiles.

They face jail terms of up to 10 years for each count of abuse, though Portuguese law stipulates that the maximum jail time a person can serve is 25 years.

The six have denied the charges and say their lives have been ruined by the allegations.

The claims that a pedophile ring had preyed on children at the state institution for years rocked the public's faith in the authorities, who appeared unable to protect the most vulnerable members of society.

The protracted trial has also fueled outrage about Portugal's notoriously slow legal system.

The president of the Portuguese Bar Association, Antonio Marinho Pinto, said "nothing justifies the length of time (the trial) has taken."

"What's bad is the slowness of judicial decision-making," Marinho Pinto said in an interview.

Teixeira, the alleged victim, said that whatever the outcome at Lisbon's main courthouse, the abuse he suffered is hard to put behind him.

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About This Blog

For over forty years, delusional and lying Christians have accused Satanists of committing all manner of atrocities toward children without any evidence. This is ironic considering the pervasive occurrence of prolonged systematic child abuse among the various Christian churches and denominations, and among others abusing positions of trust in the Jewish and Islamic Synagogues and Mosques.

Enough hypocrisy. We all know who the sick, deranged child abusers really are: the sanctimonious frauds of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions.

In fact, you could go so far as to say that child abuse IS a Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition!

STOP THE MADNESS.

This blog is maintained by Reverend Magda Graham of the Church of Satan.

The 9th Satanic Rule of the Earth

"Do not harm little children."--Anton Szandor LaVeyFounder of The Church of Satan

From THE SATANIC BIBLE

"Under NO circumstances would a Satanist sacrifice any animal or baby! For centuries, propagandists of the right-hand path have been prattling over the supposed sacrifices of small children and voluptuous maidens at the hands of diabolists. It would be thought that anyone reading or hearing of these heinous accounts would immediately question their authenticity, taking into consideration the biased sources of the stories. On the contrary, as with all "holy" lies which are accepted without reservation, this assumed modus operandi of the Satanists persists to this day!

There are sound and logical reasons why the Satanists could not perform such sacrifices. Man, the animal, is the godhead to the Satanist. The purest form of carnal existence reposes in the bodies of animals and human children who have not grown old enough to deny themselves their natural desires. They can perceive things that the average adult human can never hope to.

Therefore, the Satanist holds these beings in a sacred regard, knowing he can learn much from these natural magicians of the world."